The film Mean Girls, which stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried and was written by SNL alum Tina Fey with Mark Waters directing, centers around Lohan’s character Cady and her first year in public school after being homeschooled her entire life. On her first day, she befriends her classmates Janis Ian and Damian Leigh who educate Cady on the social hierarchy and various cliques of high school where the Plastics, led by Regina George and her subordinates Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith, reign supreme. The film then follows Cady’s journey as she is indoctrinated into the Plastics and learns to deal with her newfound popularity while trying to retain who she is as a person. However, Cady eventually succumbs to the allure of fame and popularity, eventually overthrowing Regina as the leader of the Plastics and abandoning her former friends in favor of her newfound status and the affections of the boy she likes. Unbeknownst to Cady, Regina was planning on earning her spot back as the leader of the Plastics by sabotaging her reputation and turning everyone against her by releasing the Burn Book filled with gossip and lies about the other students at the high school and framing it all on Cady.
As the girls are reprimanded and forced to confess and apologize for their transgressions, Janis reveals their plan of using Cady as an infiltrator to expose Regina for the monster that she is, resulting in the school mocking Regina to the point that she leaves the gym and is hit by a bus. Feeling guilty about her part in Regina’s accident, Cady takes responsibility for the Burn Book and is shunned by her peers, including Janis, Damian, and her boyfriend, Aaron. In addition, as punishment for her actions and for failing her math class as a ploy to win Aaron’s attention earlier in the school year, Cady is forced to join the Mathletes team and participate in an upcoming competition, which she wins. Later that night, she attends the Spring Fling dance, to which she is voted Queen over Regina. In a moment of repentance and self-discovery, Cady makes an impassioned speech declaring that each and every one of her classmates are special in their own way and breaks the plastic tiara as a symbol of solidarity with her classmates. She then makes amends with Janis, Damian, Aaron, and the Plastics. It is revealed at the start of the new school year that the Plastics have disbanded, with each member pursuing hobbies and interests that make them unique.
While there are several characters that exhibit some form of mental illness in this film – mostly members of the Plastics – Regina George stands out. Throughout the film, Regina exhibits symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD), which is defined as “a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking emotions, usually beginning in early adulthood, including inappropriately seductive behavior and an excessive need for approval” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). At the time Cady first attends North Shore High School as a junior, Regina has already earned a reputation as a narcissistic, provocative, manipulative, intelligent, and ruthless bully that everyone seems to idolize due to her status as the leader of the Plastics. Despite the negative aspects of her personality, her status as the “Queen Bee” of North Shore is enough incentive for girls to want to be her and for guys to want to be with her. Towards the beginning of the film, Regina’s family life is showcased, with her mother having married an older man and attempting to be a “cool mom,” often dressing and acting like a teenager in order to fit in with Regina and her friends. She showcases this by encouraging underage drinking, provocatively dancing in public, and dressing in a manner usually attributed to a younger demographic. In addition, when Cady first visits Regina’s house with the rest of the Plastics, Gretchen comments on Mrs. George’s recent boob job and Regina’s younger sister Kylie can be seen left to her own devices without any parental supervision. Mrs. George’s failure to be an authoritative figure and her enabilistic attitudes may have contributed to Regina’s belief that she is obligated to get whatever she wants.
While Regina’s home life may provide some background as to why she may have HPD, her actions at school and her treatment of other people, both peers and authority, further corroborate this diagnosis. Regina is known for being a bully who essentially gets whatever she wants whether it be through manipulation, blackmail, or simply her influence. Janis and Damian note that Regina’s success can be largely attributed to her uncanny ability to control people by using sex and the insecurity of others to her advantage. She is able to maintain a following because she has mastered the art of manipulating the girls around her to feel insecure due to their supposed inferiority when compared to her level of attractiveness while also using her sex appeal to attract and use guys to maintain her sense of superiority. For example, Regina only invites Cady to join the Plastics because she realizes that Cady is too pretty to remain anonymous forever. In order to stay ahead of the curve, she decides to earn Cady’s favor in order to control her under the guise of wanting to become friends. This way, she can take the credit for Cady’s eventual rise in popularity as a friend rather than as a rival. Regina is successful in this endeavor in that she is able to feign friendship with Cady long enough to earn her trust and destroy her friendship with Janis and Damian, her only detractors. However, Regina’s manipulative nature becomes more evident to Cady once she sees Regina flirting with Aaron, her ex and the boy that Cady has a crush on, after Cady confessed to Regina that she had feelings for him. Regina, seeing that Cady’s popularity would eventually surpass hers if Cady and Aaron were to date, decides to win Aaron back despite not having any feelings for him other than to preserve her social status.
Regina’s bossy, manipulative, and vengeful sides continue throughout the film as she treats the rest of the Plastics as subordinates. Despite the way she treats them, the Plastics remain loyal to Regina in order to preserve their social status. She continually belittles her supposed friends in order to remain in the spotlight and becomes jealous once she sees the attention being diverted away from her, which starts to happen once Cady becomes more popular. Once Regina’s social status begins to deteriorate due to Cady, Janis, and Damian’s ploys to ruin her, the Plastics immediately turn on her and champion Cady as their new leader, noting that they never liked Regina due to the way she treated them. Slighted, Regina is able to use the Burn Book to her advantage by writing fake gossip entries about everyone at school, including her, and framing it on the only people who do not have an entry – Cady and the rest of the Plastics. She then distributes copies of the book’s contents in the hallways as a way to turn everyone against Cady and the Plastics and to allow her an opening to win her way back to the top of the social ladder. While Regina exhibits much of this manipulative behavior throughout the film, she eventually finds a way to express her aggression through sports, as shown at the end of the film after the Plastics have officially disbanded in the new school year.
Based on the symptoms that Regina displays throughout the film, I would diagnose her with Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD), which is one of the Cluster B personality disorders. According to the American Psychiatric Association, individuals with HPD “may be uncomfortable when he/she is not the center of attention, consistently use physical appearance to draw attention or show rapidly shifting or exaggerated emotions” (2013). Some of the symptoms associated with HPD include manipulative behavior, shallow and changeable emotions, a hypersensitivity to criticism, sexually provocative behavior, a compulsive desire for attention, a preoccupation with appearance, and disproportionate emotional reactions (Fleming), to which Regina exhibits most, if not all, of these symptoms. In order to by diagnosed with HPD, a psychological examination and general evaluation of the patient and their behaviors must be conducted along with the individual exhibiting at least five of the following traits: “A compulsion to be the center of attention that results in discomfort if unmet; inappropriate sexual, seductive or provocative behavior when interacting with others; shallow, rapidly shifting emotions; the use of physical appearance to draw others’ attention; dramatic, impressionistic speech that lacks detail; exaggerated, theatrical emotional expression; easily influenced by others or situations; and assumes relationships are more intimate than they are” (Fleming) which can be remembered using the mnemonic device “PRAISE ME” (Pinkofsky & Reeves, 1998).
Regina’s actions and decisions throughout the film seem to fit at least five of these criteria, with her exhibiting provocative behavior such as sex in order to manipulate the boys in her class as well as to establish herself as someone desirable. She exhibits attention-seeking behavior and vies for the spotlight as can be seen in many occasions throughout the film such as being the leader of the Plastics, wanting to take point during the Christmas dance, and campaigning to be the Queen of the Spring Fling. Throughout the film, Regina seems unable to control her emotions and is often theatrical and exaggerated, which could be part of her plan to manipulate certain individuals. This is seen during the duration of the film when Cady notes that the reason that Regina is the way she is is because she lacks an avenue to channel her aggression, which she is finally seen doing at the end of the film when she joins the lacrosse team to take her aggression out on the field. In terms of her exaggerated emotions, Regina is often seen being theatrical in order to get her way, such as when she is trying to win Aaron back. Lastly, Regina places a big emphasis on physical appearance, especially since she uses her sex appeal to control other people. Janis and Damian note that Regina is able to control everyone at school by using her attractiveness to make the girls feel inferior and to wrap the boys around her finger.
When one thinks of films that address mental illness and disorders, Mean Girls is not usually the first film that comes to mind. Characters like Regina George and the archetype of the “mean girl” is so prevalent in the media, especially in teem films, that this type of behavior is usually dismissed as an over-exaggeration and is sometimes seen as a stereotype for women. Other forms of media that include characters like Regina George and fall under the “mean girls” trope include Bella Thorne’s Madison Morgan in The DUFF, Emma Roberts’ Chanel Oberlin in Scream Queens, and Kim Walker’s Heather Chandler in Heathers. Unfortunately, these women are normally portrayed as simply antagonists to the main character and are dismissed as spoiled, rich brats who are otherwise “normal.” These films fail to address and explain the underlying mental health issues that these characters face. As a result, the majority of audiences fail to realize that HPD is an actual diagnosable personality disorder and often chalk up the characters’ actions to stereotypically female behavior. While Mean Girls is no different, I feel that it does a good job of portraying HPD and its symptoms, as Regina George meets much of the criteria to be diagnosed with that disorder. That, in itself, can be seen as a victory.